Preliminary estimates indicate an improvement on the previous drought affected year. The number of apple trees increased by 5% from the previous year to 11 million in 2004-05. An increase in tree numbers was reported in the main growing state of Victoria, up by 16% to 4.1 million trees and in Tasmania, up by 6% to 1.5 million trees and in South Australia, up by 5% to 1.4 million trees.

The production of apples increased by 30% from the previous year to 330,200 tonnes in 2004-05. Favourable conditions were experienced by growers in most states with some reporting significant production increases from the previous year. Victoria, the main producing state, reported a substantial increase with apple production up 50% to 126,000 tonnes. New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia also reported significant increases with production up by between 33 and 46 percent.

Pears

Preliminary estimates showed the number of pear trees remained stable at 2.0 million in 2004-05. Pear tree numbers in Victoria, the main growing state, were unchanged at 1.6 million trees.

The production of pears increased by 5% from the previous year to 149,750 tonnes in 2004-05. Victoria remained by far the largest producing state with an increase of 6% in the production of pears, up to 131,700 tonnes.

Table 1: Apples(a)

Australia

2005p

2003

2004

2005p

NSW

Vic.

Qld

SA

WA

Tas.

NT

ACT

NUMBER OF TREES ('000)

Trees under 1 year

365

253

310

48

96

15

69

19

63

nc

-

Trees 1 to 3 years

1 455

1 368

1 307

201

591

111

195

79

131

nc

-

Trees 4 years and over

8 391

8 885

9 431

1 849

3 416

805

1 177

896

1 286

nc

2

Total number of trees

10 211

10 505

11 048

2 098

4 102

931

1 441

994

1 480

nc

3

PRODUCTION OF FRUIT (fresh weight) ('000 t)

Total production

326

255

330

66

126

25

29

34

49

nc

-

Yield (kg/tree)(b)

39

29

35

35

37

31

25

38

38

nc

15

- zero or rounded to zeronc not collectedp preliminary(a) Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.(b) Yield represents the quantity of fruit produced per tree of bearing age, i.e. 4 years and over.

Table 2: Pears (including nashi)(a)

Australia

2005p

2003

2004

2005p

NSW

Vic.

Qld

SA

WA

Tas.

NT

ACT

NUMBER OF TREES ('000)

Trees under 1 year

87

38

43

1

32

-

3

5

1

nc

-

Trees 1 to 5 years

268

297

279

1

200

11

20

41

6

nc

-

Trees 6 years and over

1 667

1 724

1 732

26

1 409

16

96

162

22

nc

-

Total number of trees

2 022

2 059

2 054

28

1 641

28

119

209

29

nc

-

PRODUCTION OF FRUIT (fresh weight) ('000 t)

Total production

140

142

150

1

132

1

7

9

1

nc

-

Yield (kg/tree)(b)

84

82

86

27

93

44

71

56

37

nc

21

- zero or rounded to zeronc not collectedp preliminary(a) Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.(b) Yield represents the quantity of fruit produced per tree of bearing age, i.e. 6 years and over.

Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us.